DIDSBURY — A preliminary hearing date has been scheduled for the suspect accused of killing a 19-year-old co-worker earlier this summer while on shift at the McDonald’s in Sundre.
Solaimane Elbettah, 27, was without incident taken into custody by members of the Sundre RCMP who found him not far from the fast food restaurant after responding during the early-morning hours of July 4 to a call about a homicide at the establishment, where officers discovered the body of 19-year-old Josh Burns.
The Alberta RCMP Serious Crimes Branch was called in to assist with the investigation, and Elbettah was subsequently charged with first-degree murder.
Police had confirmed through earlier follow-up interviews with the Albertan that the two knew one another as co-workers.
“They were both employees and working,” previously said Cpl. Gina Slaney, Alberta RCMP Southern Alberta District media relations officer, adding investigators have reason to believe the killing was “planned or deliberate,” hence the decision to press ahead with a first-degree murder charge.
However, an official cause of death is not known and police have not disclosed what kind of weapon – if any – was used, nor what the motive might have been and whether investigators had obtained any available video surveillance footage of the incident captured by closed-circuit television.
“I’m not going to discuss the actual investigation,” Slaney said at the time. “It’ll come out in court.”
Elbettah’s latest appearance was, according to information provided by Alberta Court Checks, on Oct. 24 in Didsbury provincial court, where dates for a preliminary hearing were set for March 27-30 in Calgary provincial court.
An Innisfail High School class of 2021 graduate, Burns had been residing in Sundre to work and had an affinity for skateboarding. The inaugural Innisfail Skatepark Trick Competition on July 30 was held in his memory.